Friday, March 16th 2012
Today we shared car rental expenses with another cruising couple Allan and Ann-Marie and drove into Loreto for the Day. The Hertz rental car was delivered to the Marina from town and then collected after our adventures, the keys being left at the Marina office who assisted Alan in making the arrangements.

Loreto is 14 miles north of Puerto Escondido. It was founded in 1697 by the Jesuits who built a mission, the first in all of California. The mission, Nuestra Senora de Loretto was the center for establishing missions throughout the California area as far north as San Francisco. It was from here in 1769 that the Jesuit explorers set out to travel along the California coast and found the many missions familiar to Californians. Loreto was the capital and the center of the Baja area for many years until 1829 when it was heavily damaged by a storm. Because of this, the capital and administrative center of the Baja was moved to La Paz.

The town is quite small and very easy to walk around. It has a small but shallow harbor and a Malecon which is in the process of being modernized. Most of the town consists of single or double level houses and hotels. Because of this, the Mission church still stands out as the tallest building in town and dominates the skyline. It is very much the small Gringo town with many homes owned by Americans especially along the waterfront. While ripe for development, it is still a quiet backwater that has its own charm but will probably eventually succumb to commercialization. It also serves as a center for Kayakers’, who make group camping trips along the coast and to the nearby islands of Carmen, Danzante and Coronados. The morning VHF channel 22 cruiser net in Puerto Escondido has a section devoted to them for check in and provide updates on their daily activity.
There is a really nice old hotel on the main town square called,’ Posada de la Flores’ that is well worth seeing. The main street is a pedestrian walk-way with intertwined overhanging trees. There are a number of nice restaurants and we had a nice Huarache for lunch and Sea Bass for dinner.

The mission has an interesting museum containing many early items from its founding in 1697. Loreto is certainly a nice town with a lot of charm and well worth a visit.